Mid-South Memories: April 11

Karen Pulfer/The Commercial Appeal files
Kids learn emergency preparedness
Daniel Kelley (right) of Bethel Baptist School pretends to be a 911 operator while talking to classmate Daniel Winter (background) about a pretend emergency during a preparedness class on April 12, 1990, at the Red Cross Memphis chapter at 1400 Central Avenue. Kindergartners and first-graders learned how to handle emergencies in “First Aid for Little People.” Classes are open to the public.$RETURN$$RETURN$

April 11

25 years ago: 1988

An advisory council of nationally recognized doctors will advise on health initiatives in the Free the Children anti-poverty project. Two members of the Institute of Medicine — doctors who act as consultants for health projects around the country — have been named to the council, said Dr. James Hunt, chancellor of the University of Tennessee, Memphis. Dr. Robert Sparks, also president of the Kellogg Foundation, and Dr. Julius Richmond, former assistant secretary of health for the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, will choose the third member of the advisory council. “We think Memphis has a project that should lead it to become a national model in looking at how one intervenes for the benefit of children, not only for their health, but for their education and preparing them for future jobs,” Dr. Hunt said.

50 years ago: 1963

The presence of an able-bodied man in the home, rather than any question of morals, was the cause of 106 Shelby County families being cut from the state’s welfare rolls over the past three months, the Memphis area director said yesterday. George Latham, director of the state Welfare Department’s Memphis office, said the cuts were made after his case workers determined “a common-law relationship existed in these homes, which we must assume means a resource available for financial help.” “We do not have the legal right to discontinue aid (under the Aid to Dependent Children program) because of an illicit affair in the home. But if the man eats and sleeps there, we can only assume he’s receiving aid he isn’t entitled to and we cut it off.”

75 years ago: 1938

Lack of proper equipment in the college cafeteria is blamed by Dr. Garland Weidner, head of the Public Health and Physical Education Department at State Teachers College, for the illness of 50 students last week. He said that the school does not have enough refrigeration space in which to store food and does not receive enough appropriations to buy more.

100 years ago: 1913

A steady stream of refugees from the flooded areas of Arkansas and Mississippi last night swelled the total being cared for at Camp Crump at the Fairgrounds close to 1,500, J.A. Reichman reported. There are ample quarters to house them in the buildings there but clothing is badly needed.

125 years ago: 1888

A doctor and his patient were both arrested yesterday, the patient for assaulting the doctor with a brickbat and the doctor for using abusive language to the patient. Neither would discuss the case after their arrest.